"A conference grant to support the Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making" This grant for large conference support seeks AHRQ support for the core activities of the 2009-2011 meetings of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM). These meetings will be held Oct 19-21, 2009, in Hollywood, CA;Oct 24-27, 2010, in Toronto, Ontario;and Oct 23-26, 2011, in Chicago, IL. SMDM is a professional research organization that promotes scientific and methodological rigor in health care decision and behavioral science and their application to clinical care and health policy. SMDM's Annual Meeting is the focal point of the organization's educational and training activities. The annual meeting regularly attracts more than 500 attendees. The meeting provides a forum for presentation of novel research based on decision and behavior theory and analytical models applied to health related decisions in ambulatory care, hospital medicine, and public health domains. Conference sessions include research presentations, keynote talks, special symposia and short courses that offer attendees the opportunity to explore diverse topics in medical decision making. The meeting has an active mentoring component, with emphasis on development, facilitation and nurturing of young investigators in disciplines related to health care decision making and behavior who seek careers as independent, clinically oriented health services and policy outcomes researchers. SMDM meeting themes are closely related to AHRQ's research priorities, strategic goals, and its mission to improve clinical practice, access and quality. AHRQ support is sought for four core program activities associated with this meeting: (1) scientific review and research presentations, including both oral and poster presentation sessions, (2) five foundational full-day short courses in comparative effectiveness, meta-analysis, medical decision analysis, psychology of medical decision making, and mentoring, (3) a keynote address and moderated discussion session, and (4) presentation of work conducted by SMDM/AHRQ Health Policy Fellows. Requested support includes costs associated both with the conduct of these activities and with their dissemination through multiple formats and outlets, including academic publication and online multimedia productions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: "A conference grant to support the Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making" For 30 years, the Society for Medical Decision Making and its members have been leaders in the promotion of rational, systematic analysis of clinical decision making to improve individual and public health and health care and inform health policy. The Society and its members have been on the cutting edge of developing, refining and disseminating state-of-the-art methods for assessing health, economic and social benefits, risks and costs of medical interventions and innovations. The annual meeting is the key educational and training activity of the Society.